Survey of 185,000 Polish school pupils finds suicidal thoughts widespread
-
Loading... - pettersen sara
- 18 Apr 2023
- 79 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
A survey of almost 185,000 school pupils in Poland has found that almost a third say they have no will to live and almost one in ten have attempted suicide. Though the study was not conducted using random sampling, it has added to evidence of growing mental health problems among young Poles.
The research was conducted through an anonymous online questionnaire in 1,923 Polish schools that voluntarily signed up for the project. It was usually carried out during IT classes or in special lessons intended to address topics important to children’s social development and wellbeing.
Children could decide whether they wanted to participate and also required the consent of parents. Those who started to complete the survey but did not complete it (around 20% of respondents) were not included in the results.
The organisation behind the study – the Unaweza Foundation, whose founder and head is Martyna Wojciechowska, a well-known TV presenter – acknowledges that the non-random sampling method makes it difficult to establish a representative research group.
Among the 184,447 respondents, who were aged 9 upwards, 37.5% reported feeling lonely, 32.5% said they do accept who they are or how they look, and 28% claimed they have no will to live. The report’s authors believe that the results show one in three students having suspected depression.
Over 39% of respondents said they had thought about attempting suicide. Almost one in five (18.6%) had planned suicide and almost one in 10 (8.8%) had attempted it. Among primary school pupils, 6.7% said they had attempted suicide. Read More…
